​How many times have you been on the Lake in the dead heat of the summer and witnessed fish breaking the surface early in the morning? While you have bait on down-lines, you realize that you failed to bring a casting rod/reel with an artificial. That, my friend, is a bad mistake on your part. I think the least amount of equipment that you should always have is down rods, a rod/reel for casting artificial lures that will catch a Striper, and at least one Umbrella Rig fitted to a suitable trolling rod.

There are some other things to take with you. For instance, always have extra bait saver and salt for your bait tank just in case the water in the tank goes bad (or your Grandson pours a Coke in the tank). LOL!

To sum all of this up, I think you should always keep all of your fishing gear on board every time you go fishing. You never know what the season holds for any given day. Examples of this include: various hook sizes, base line for your reel, fluorocarbon, In-line Planer Boards and most important – a great lunch such as a chicken salad sandwich!

Summertime fishing has different requirements. It’s a good idea to bring one or more extra bags of ice to maintain a safe water temperature for the bait tank.

To summarize, remember to bring the things I have mentioned above. You have to be flexible with the fishing methods applicable for the various seasons in which you fish for Lake Lanier Stripers. If you take my advice, you won’t have a bad outcome and you won’t get angry at yourself.

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Don just seemed to be the grumpy old man across the room who would occasionally comment on whatever topic was being discussed at striper club meetings. We spoke a few words every now and then. He would give me tips on where to go fish etc. I talked him into taking me fishing one day and that was it. We got along very well and for some reason he decided he would mentor me. We became tournament fishing partners and I soaked up everything he was willing to share. Don was very direct and had a great sense of humor. After spending so much time, many many hours on the boat fishing, we got to know each other pretty well. He told me his life story and I told him mine. He shared with me how he met his beautiful wife, Susan, and how they fell in love. He told me about his passion for racing.

I learned a great deal from Don and have many fond memories I will treasure forever. I miss my dear friend and mentor. When I am fishing alone I can almost hear him…

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November Don Brown Tx results

The Don Brown Memorial Tournament had a great turnout for both fishing clubs. The topwater bite had exploded a few days prior to the tournament. Reports of 30-45 fish a day were coming in. The bigger fish finally showed up on the surface. On Wednesday and Thursday people caught fish in the 20lb range throwing chug bugs and spooks. Back to reality. As usual, Saturday came with a nasty cold front. We had heavy white caps on the lake with 15-20MPH East winds, and gusts to 35mph. Water temperature was 66 degrees on the main lake. There was no fish caught on topwater the whole day. A total of 38 boats braved the nasty conditions and tried their hand at some big money prizes. 1st place for OSC was Double Trouble with 46.50 inches. Junior, Boomer and PAul had some downline action in Little River. They apparently had it all to themselves. Backwoods had 2nd place with 38.75″. Jeremy and Brandon failed up river and were happy to get 2 downline bites in the last hour. Nauti by Nature had 3rd and Big fish with a 31.75″ fish. They got their south on a downline in the last hour. 4th went to Back in Black with 29.5″. Mike got his deep at Browns Bridge. Fish Hunter had 27.25″ and 5th place. 6th place went to Little River Boys with 23.75″. Hogans Heros also had 23.75″ for 7th place. Abercrombie and Fish had a 23″ striper good for 8th. It came out of Flat Creek. Wasted Seamen had 9th with 20.25″. We had 9 boats or half the team Zero.

On another note 1st place overall was 68.25″. That team won $1900. 2nd place overall had 59″. 3rd place was Double Trouble with 46.5 (OSC 1st place)4th place had 40.75″ and 5th was Backwoods with 38.75″ (OSC 2nd place). Big Fish was caught by John Mantovani. It was 36″ and yielded $900 in cash. Only 5 boats had 2 or more fish. 1st and 2nd came out of the rivers. 20 boats skunked, a little more than half the field.

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September Don Brown Memorial

What a great event! The season finale was also the Don Brown Memorial (ALS) Tournament. We had 19 boats fish the club tournament and 36 boats fished the whole event. The weather turned out great, considering we are still recovering from Hurricane Irma on Tuesday. Clear skies prevailed with a starting air temp of 60 and we finished around 80 degrees. Water temps were steady from 73-75 degrees. Wind was 0-5 NNW.

1st Place and Big Fish went to Team Chaser with 72.5″ The Big Fish was 37″. Bob and Charles got some early pulling boards and free lines in 30′ of water. Still fishing Mud Creek. They switched to downlines at 9:00AM. Bigger fish came off gizzard shad 40 to 60′ down over 60-100′ deep. Striper Sniper had 2nd Place with 65.5″. David and Jeff had similar success fishing boards and freelines with shad in the morning. The downlines came out with the sun. They boated over 20 fish for the day. Team Simpson/Castillo/Honcho/Head Honcho had 3rd with 57″. Call them what you want, but Leonel and Shawn got theirs up the river. 4th place went to Team Green with 55″ 5th went to Double Trouble with 54.25″. Main Arrow had 6th with 51.5″ Back in Black had 7th with 50.75″. Mike also had a solid walleye joining him for dinner. Lanier Striper had 8th with 50″. 9th place went to Backwoods with 49. Bucktales also had 49 ” for 10th place. Abercrombie & Fish had 11th with 48.25″. Nauti by Nature had 47″, good for 12th place.

The pattern for numbers were downline herring over 60-120′ bottoms. Fish were in the main river channel at the mouth of creeks by late morning. They started out in mid creek pockets from 30-50′ deep. We all had a lot of shopping and pull downs. So we all went through a lot of bait. Fish were caught by trolling leadcore, spooning, freelines, downlines and even topwater. Fish were caught in the mouth of Baldridge, Dam, Saddle Dyke, Shoal Creek, Big Creek, Flowery, Orr and Mud to name a few. Of the 19 boats we had 15 catch 2 or more. Only 1 boat skunked.

All in all, a great day. A great way to end the season. Most importantly, the Open Tournament generated over $3000 for ALS in the name of Don Brown. Thanks again for all of you that helped at the event. A very special thanks to Lynn Gregory who couldn’t make the event do to her injury. Her hard work paid off, making the event run smoothly.

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Bob Fields and I came in 5th place in both the Lanier Striper Club & the Oakwood Striper Club combined tournaments and 10th out of 38 boats in the Don Brown Memorial Tournament for ALS today. With the blustering winds gusting at times to 20 mph and the air temperature just below 50° it felt like 40°, we set out to fish near Dog Creek north of Clark’s Bridge ramp about 2 miles. Shortly after getting all of our lines out I lost a striper on planer board with 8” gizzard shad. I thought it was because I was using a circle hook so I changed it to a J hook and added a stinger. An hour later the same thing happened, planer board went under and popped up again. The lesson learned here was that after the planer board went under I didn’t wait a few more seconds for the striper to come back for the bait it just stunned with a slap of its tail. Common mistake when fishing in colder water like 52-55°. We were just south of Don Carter park. We decided to leave for warmer waters and left that area heading south to Laurel Park to pull umbrella rigs in the river channel. The water temperature here was 62°. Before I could get my line in the water, it was FISH ON. Bob not only got this 27” striper, it was his first on a urig.